CD Review: Bury Your Dead - Beauty and the Breakdown

Bury Your Dead, that is what you're likely going to need to do after listening to this brutal little album. I have said it before, and I'll probably say it again, I am not a big hardcore fan. That said, I have been listening to a few bands in the genre that I have liked, Hatebreed (one of my favorites) and Bludgeon. Now, along comes Bury Your Dead, and my first exposure to their brand with their latest album, Beauty and the Breakdown.

The album is as brutal as it is short, clocking in at a concise 34 minutes. It's not uncommon for hardcore albums to clock in with such brief runtimes, a fact that is probably for the best. Everything in moderation, as they say. Much more than this and it would get to be too much, at least for one sitting, there is only so much aggression that a head can handle.

Bury Your Dead does bring something unique to the table, both of their albums have had a song related gimmick. Their major label debut, Cover Your Tracks, features song titles that are all Tom Cruise films, such as "Vanilla Sky," "Risky Business," and "Mission: Impossible." This time around the songs are all fairy tale related, like "The Poison Apple" and "Trail of Crumbs," not to mention the album title, itself.

The band seems to be a combination of hardcore and metalcore. As the promo sticker on the album states "Nu Metal is Dead... Long Live the New Metal, Bury Your Dead, Destructive Hardcore." Seems to be a fitting statement given the content. The vocals are your standard Hatebreed style angry, raw throated growl, while the music is grinding, incessant, and features touches of the so-called New Wave of American Metal.

They are not the most original band I have heard lately, and not the best hardcore act I listen to, but they are definitely catching. I love the slowed down breakdowns, the kind of sections that get you bobing your head, the pit gets rough, and flat out rock.

Beauty and the Breakdown is full of heavy, chugging riffs, nothing revolutionary, but something that you can turn on, turn up, and let the adrenaline flow. The band definitely knows how to put together a crowd pleasing track, and I am a sucker for those lumbering riffs that work their way through the album.

Bottomline. Not perfect, not my favorite, but definitely solid. They have a good sound that focuses on the basics, pulling them together in a way that creates their own voice while remaining accessible to the fringe fans, such as myself. That may not please the harcore fans, but so what, I like it.

Recommended.